The scale of attacks on websites and blogs worldwide is rising, and things are getting worse.
You can safely assume that if you haven’t been hacked yet, then it’s inevitable that at some point in time someone will attempt to hack into your site.
On March 11, 2014, technology sites like Cnet.com reported that 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered websites had been hacked.
Thousands of websites are attacked every year! Will yours be one of them?
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender site)
According to the Cnet report,
“With some old-fashioned trickery, hackers were able to get more than 162,000 legitimate WordPress-powered Web sites to mount a distributed-denial-of-service attack against another Web site.”
(Source: cnet.com/news/ddos-attack-is-launched-from-162000-wordpress-sites)
According to security firm Sucuri, hackers had leveraged a well-known flaw to attack unsuspecting WP sites and direct a distributed-denial-of-service attack (DDoS) towards another popular website.
Every web site with a security vulnerability provides an opportunity to hackers. A vulnerable web site offers malicious users with a valuable platform for launching stealth attacks, spreading malware and engaging in information theft.
If a malicious user can hack into and gain remote access and control of your blog, the website can then be used as part of a larger network of “bots” to target more highly-valued web sites.
The harsh reality is that brute-force software bots are most likely looking for exploits and trying to break into your website at this very moment. Whether they will do this successfully will depend on how hard or easy you have made things for them to continue trying until they find how to get access, or decide to look for a more vulnerable target.
How Much Information About Your Site Are You Broadcasting To Hackers?
If you visit Hackertarget.com and run your site through their WordPress security check …
(Hackertarget – WordPress Security Scan Product image: Hackertarget.com)
You will see that the check will return various results and information about your website …
(Hackertarget – website security check results. Product image source: Hackertarget.com)
It should be obvious after using the tool shown above that if you can access all of this information about your site, hackers can too.
(Image source: BlogDefender site)
Being able to see which version of WordPress you are using, which plugins and themes you have installed on your site, and which files have been uploaded to certain directories can all be potentially valuable information to hackers, as this informs them about potential holes or weaknesses, especially where the owners haven’t updated their software versions.
Fortunately, there is a simple and inexpensive solution that can stop broadcasting all of this information about your site and make your site invisible to hackers and botnets.
Blog Defender
Product Description
Blog Defender is a package of WordPress security video tutorials, plugins and tools, plus a WordPress security PDF/DOC file.
Matt Garrett, the developer of the BlogDefender security suit began to develop BlogDefender after noticing that a WordPress blog he set up for his mother got hacked into and suspended. This particular site had practically no value to offer, yet it was still targeted by hackers.
Matt only became aware of the event after being informed by his host and observing that a significant amount of suspicious activity had occurred within his server, as well as the addition of several malicious files by whoever had broken into his mother’s site.
(Screenshot: Blog Defender)
Matt’s experience demonstrates that every website has some value to hackers.
Blog Defender scans you WordPress site for potential security holes …
And then shows you how to quickly fix these …
WP Plugins
The product suite includes three plugins:
Plugin #1 “Automated Backups” in the product suite provides automated backups …
(Product image source: BlogDefender site)
This plugin lets you do secure backups to your server, third-party servers and well-known cloud storage solutions using a number of backup methods, automate complete or partial backups, exclude files or tables from your backups, restore backups, replace URLs (useful when migrating websites to different domains or server locations), search and replace text strings in your database, perform malware scans and blacklist checks automatically, and more.
Plugin #2 provides your web site with security …
(Product image: BlogDefender.com)
The “WP Security” plugin performs a range of file and site protection functions (see “Features” section below).
Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” scans your plugins, WP themes, core files and content to see whether your source code has been changed, and repair any problems found …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Pro Plugin #3 “WordPress Scan & Repair” also scans content to see if any malicious URLs have been inserted into your site, bans bad bots, blocks brute force attacks and detects any content leeching (where people benefit from your hard work without offering you anything in return).
Video Training
In addition to the plugins, the Blog Defender suite of products also includes 7 step-by-step video tutorial modules plus printable documentation that will show you exactly how to protect your website from malicious users …
(Screenshot source: BlogDefender.com)
Learn more about the plugin here:
Benefits Of Using Blog Defender
Here are just some of the many benefits and advantages of using Blog Defender to make your WordPress site invisible to hackers and botnets on your site:
Ready To Use In Very Little Time
The plugins install just like any regular plugin. Simply upload a zip folder that contains the plugins to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Simple And Easy To Follow
Blog Defender can be used as an easy-to-follow DIY training product that takes you through the website security process and shows you exactly what to do, including how to set everything up, and even which free WordPress plugins to use to get things done inexpensively.
Some additional benefits and advantages include:
- Protect your WordPress website from hackers, spammers, botnets, data miners and malicious users attempting to exploit your site for their own personal and financial gain.
- Helps Avoid Intellectual Property Theft – If your site sells information products (e.g. downloadable ebooks, videos, etc.), your work can be stolen and end up as freeware on download sharing sites.
- Avoid Getting Closed By Your Web Host And Banned By Search Engines – When a website has been hacked, expect to go through a serious amount of inconvenience and aggravation. It can take days to uncover problems and sort through any issues these have caused. Your, blog can get suspended by your webhost, or even blacklisted by search engines. Additionally, hackers can spam your contact list and steal your business details or financial information, you could end up being fined or even charged with fraud, and more.
Features
Blog Defender was created to lock down your site and keep your business safe and secure 24/7.
Blog Defender provides fixes for all of the following areas:
- Webhost Security Advisory
- WP Plugin Security Audits
- WordPress Theme Security Audits
- Anti Brute Force Security
- Anti Cross-Site Scripting
- MySQL Database Security
- Nefarious Traffic Blocking
- Hiding WordPress ‘Tell Tale’ Signs
- Anti-Comment Spam Blocking
- File Monitoring
- Link Tracking
- Known Offender Blocking
- Automating WordPress Updates
- WordPress Security Audit
- Tighter Server Security
- Kick Out Policy
- Reputation Checking
- And More …
Blog Defender uses a logical process to help secure your web site, addressing hosting security, using scanning and detection tools to quickly identify risky themes and WordPress plugins, and then implementing site-wide security using the tools and plugins provided.
(Blog Defender WordPress security process. Screenshot source: Blog Defender)
Testimonials
Below are a couple of the testimonials and comments customers have submitted for Blog Defender:
”This is a seriously good product!” Simon Hodgkinson, www.hodgkinsonpublishing.com
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”In the past month alone, I’ve had 3 niche blogs hacked, costing me hundreds of dollars in lost sales – all of which could have been avoided if I followed the steps in this training. I can tell you, there’s nothing worse than spending months building up a blog, adding posts every few days, and then finding it all gone in an instant. The great thing about these ‘over the shoulder’ videos is that you get to see exactly how to do everything, so it doesn’t matter if you’re technically challenged. Just copy what you see on the screen, and then relax knowing your blogs are safe. (Just one of the tips in the first video alone could probably have prevented my blogs getting hacked) I even noticed one or two tips in there that help with SEO too … so following these videos could even bring your blogs more traffic!” Richard Legg – www.richard-legg.com
Useful Tips
According to the product’s website, no Blog Defender-protected sites have been hacked since Blog Defender was first released back in 2012.
The product developer states on his site, however …
“With the volume of attacks nowadays … we probably won’t hold forever, so we’ve been busy creating even tougher WordPress security.”
The war on hackers is is a constant game of cat and mouse and all security solutions are only as good as the knowledge and tools developers currently have access to. The latest release of Blog Defender provides users with an easier WordPress security solution that doesn’t require constant attention, is quite inexpensive and it’s as good if not better than many web security products or services currently being offered at a higher price.
Support
The product is well-supported, can be used by both Mac and PC users, is compatible with the latest WordPress release and is backed by a risk-free, 30 day, 100% money-back guarantee.
Software Pricing
Blog Defender is normally available with a personal license only for use on unlimited sites. When we last checked, however, it was also being sold with Developer rights, allowing users to secure client sites as well.. Price = $47.00.
Note: The cost of purchasing Blog Defender depends on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the product sells for the prices shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the plugin author when you visit the product site and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after your purchase.
Check the plugin’s website for the current pricing details here:
Additional Info
For help documentation and tutorials, FAQs, support helpdesk, contact details and more, visit the Blog Defender website.
In Conclusion
Regardless of the kind of business you run or plan to run online and how small you think your web presence is, web security is something you cannot ignore.
WordPress is a very secure web platform, but neglecting basic maintenance tasks like making sure that your WP software, plugins and WordPress themes are kept updated to their latest versions, tightening file and data security and taking other necessary precautions can have disastrous consequences.
Adopting security procedures such as the one Blog Defender provides, will help you learn what’s going on in your site and where the vulnerabilities are, what hosting companies can and can’t do if your website is hacked, what security features to look for in a webhost, and how to avoid all the major security risks without costly solutions.
For complete details, visit the plugin website here: Blog Defender
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